Moving from the passage of California’s Proposition 215, the nation’s first medical marijuana law, through law enforcement raids and the emergence of a lucrative cannabis industry, Weed Land reveals the changing political, legal, economic, and social dynamics of pot. It offers an independent, meticulously reported account of the clashes and contradictions of a burgeoning California cannabis culture that stoked pot liberalization elsewhere, leading to marijuana legalization votes in Colorado and Washington. Weed Land takes readers into the laboratories of researchers who challenged federal drug policy with clinical studies revealing the medical benefits of cannabis. It also takes readers inside the law enforcement backlash - and unfolding consequences – of a federal crackdown on America’s largest marijuana economy.

Hecht began reporting on America’s marijuana phenomenon in 2009, starting with a quixotic medical marijuana taxation vote in Oakland and continuing with coverage of pot legalization efforts and cannabis commerce that swept California and beyond. In 2010, as an initiative to legalize marijuana in California was put on the ballot, Hecht's blog for The Sacramento Bee, "Weed Wars," covered the news, trends, and people behind the California marijuana story. His marijuana coverage was honored for explanatory reporting in the "Best of the West" journalism awards and earned an Excellence in Journalism prize from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Hecht is a past Best of the West winner for feature writing and immigration and minority affairs reporting, has served as The Sacramento Bee's political writer and Los Angeles bureau chief.